Dollar Decorating: Glitter, glitter everywhere

For Luke's first  birthday party I wanted to make a glitter "1" for the front door, hoping we'd also be able to use it for his one year photo shoot.  I like glitter and sparkles.  I like doing crafts.  This was a no brainer.  It really was about the easiest project ever.

Supplies:
-poster board or cardboard
-glitter
-Mod Podge
-a ruler or a steady hand
-pencil
-scissors
-foam brush or paint brush 
-clear acrylic spray  (optional)

I had planned to use just a larger cereal box until I found some unused posterboard in Matt's office (it was for oh-so classy light blocking before I made him curtains).  I used a ruler and pencil to measure out my 1.  I made the base and straight line 4 inches thick and the little part hanging down 3" (I've never tried to describe pieces of a number like that).  It took a few tries to get the angle like I wanted but still just a few minutes.  I cut it out.

I wanted to make blue & green stripes and decided the easiest way to see the angles the same and the thickness the same would be to cut out another piece of poster board the width I wanted and just trace it.  I lined it up in the middle, traced, and then just kept lining it up with my other lines.  Much quicker than measuring (at one point I thought I'd have to dig out my compass from geometry, really glad we were spared that).

Then it was just an application of Mod Podge with a foam brush to each section and glitter.   After letting it dry I shook off the excess and carefully poured it back in the container.  I then did some touch-ups using a small paint brush for little parts I missed. 

 I repeated with the green once the blue was dry and shaken. 

Once it was dry I laid on the porch and applied two coats of the acrylic spray.  I've used this on multiple projects (cardboard letters I've painted mostly) and was hoping it would help seal in the glitter.  I don't know how well it worked but the glitter mess hasn't been too bad since hanging so maybe it did?

The layers of glue and spray made the edges curl a little so 24 hours after spraying it I laid it between some of Matt's radiology books for a few days to flatten.  This worked well and by the time I hung it on the inside front door it was nice and flat, no curling at all.

None of the pictures with it from Luke's photoshoot really worked (we didn't print any of them).  Oh well.  It's now hanging in his room where he doesn't really notice it.

Total cost for me was just about $6 of glitter (with gobs left) since I had everything else on hand.  But it would probably be $15 if you had to buy Mod Podge, poster board, brushes, and spray too.  It was a nice little project to add a little sparkle to his party and made me happy to play with glitter again.